We wrote up a script and then tried to ground all of the elements into a space. This is just about a brother and sister who go on a camping trip following the death of their mother.
I struggled a lot with Mixamo. At first, the files were too large to process, but after simplifying them down, I wasn't able to import the texture. Finally, after tons of re-exporting, simplifying, changing file formats, and googling, I was able to get the textures into mixamo.
Unfortunately, Mixamo then decided it wouldn't rig my model and I had to go back to square one. After hours and hours of work, I eventually got it rigged, but I still had issues. For whatever reason, it pinches my wrists into a single vertex regardless of how I position the markers. This is incredible frustrating, but I have spent way too long on this, so here is my final result.
For a while I thought this was actually about the feature documentary by the same name, so I almost watched that instead. Luckily, I got the message that it was a VR piece just a few minutes before I sat down to watch.
I thought this was an interesting experience. It was a bit too long, but overall did a good job bridging the gap between seeing and blindness. However, my criticism comes mostly at the first part. You would think that its compelling to watch these figures come in and out with the sounds, but it tends to be a more exciting and interesting experience when you have your eyes closed. For this reason, the first part of the piece doesn't lend itself all that well to VR (in my opinion).
However, the parts with the wind lend themselves quite well. As does the feeling of panic. Without being able to control those moments with small bursts of controlled sounds, they will likely just appear to the users as what we hear every day. There is something to be said about needing to give users control to explain an involuntary condition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBQOfyR75vY&ab_channel=ORLANDOSCULPTUREMUSEUM
This is a video of a very famous tap sequence by the Nicholas Brothers. I have always found myself fascinated by tap dance. It has the capacity to show so much emotion, both auditorily and physically. However, we are often unable to perceive every single movement of the foot. We can hear each tap, though. This provides a capacity to disconnect the movement from the tap, giving way to interesting combinations, a way of telling story, and a deep emotional change. To provide juxtaposition, think about the famous La La Land Tap scene in which Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone seem to tap in a way that is both putting them at odds and connecting them more than they had before. There’s something knowing in their tap and the contemporary form allows the audience to understand their connection more deeply than in the clip on the right where we are experiencing brothers who are both competing and harmonizing. The main difference between the two is context.
I am still toying around with this. I want to craft a story that lends itself to the addition of senses, rather than traditional VR mediums. Forgive me for not having something fleshed out at the moment.